"Hey you lot, the boss is here! Get over here and show some respect!"
""""Welcome, Big Sis!""""
"I told you to call me boss, but you never listen, damn it."
"If you were going to call me that, you would've done it ages ago. Give it up, Big Sis."
She sighed. "To think these are our members... See that guy who just spoke? He's the one who was two-timing and almost deserted Orario. Keep that in mind."
"...Ah, yes."
"Hey, why are you digging up old news? When is that going to stop haunting me!? And who's this beside you...?"
"Maybe when you start calling me Boss. And this guy here wants to join. I found him on the way."
"So it'll never fade from memory... Tsk..."
The brown-haired beastman who was bantering with Tsubaki suddenly came over to me and started tapping me here and there.
...?
"Hmm... Judging by your muscles, you've done some blacksmithing outside. Been at it for... 10, 15 years? And you're right-handed."
"...What are you doing now?"
"Ah, sorry, sorry. When we bring in hopefuls, we have to check like this. If a total greenhorn joins, it's a bit of a hassle for us. Plus, muscles from farming, fighting, or blacksmithing are all different, so we need to verify."
"You can tell all that just by tapping me a few times? Even how long I've been hammering?"
"Well, think of it as one of my skills. Since you haven't been approved by the god yet, I can't give you the details."
Instantly, I got goosebumps all over. He can tell I'm a blacksmith and how many years I've been at it just by tapping me a few times? That's monstrous. So this is Orario, the city of adventurers—you can't survive here with half-baked skills...
"By the way, where is the god? We need to have this guy take the entrance test or just do an interview."
"The god is probably upstairs. He seemed in an oddly good mood, so maybe another inspiration struck him?"
"Got it, thanks. Let's go."
Tsubaki, upon hearing that, started leading me upstairs.
"Um, Tsubaki? Can I ask something?"
"Yeah, what?"
"You mentioned an entrance test or interview... What exactly is the process..."
"Nothing much. For the test, we give you one to two weeks to make a weapon in Hephaestus Familia's exclusive workshop. The interview is talking directly with the god, and if he likes you, you pass. Sometimes both, sometimes just one, and the order varies—test then interview or vice versa."
"Isn't the interview just abuse of power...?"
"He's the top of the food chain in this familia. If the god says you pass, what can we do? But his standards are firm, he evaluates without bias, and in the end, he picks talented ones."
"Aha... So, well..."
"Right? Oh, we're here. This is our god's room. Wait here a moment."
Tsubaki knocked and barged in, then after about five minutes of arguing sounds from inside, she opened the door and came out.
"Hey, come on in."
"Ah, yes."
Inside, one wall was covered with various weapons, and by the window, there was a desk and a bed.
"Hello, you're the one Tsubaki said wants to join our familia?"
And there was the god. Red hair like incarnate flames, half covered by an eyepatch but the other half revealing a beautiful face with red eyes, and that aura. Not as much as the god who reincarnated me, but enough to instinctively feel it's a god—is this Arcanum? First, greetings...
"Nice to meet you, God Hephaestus."
"Heh, as Tsubaki said, you're polite. I thought when she brought a man suddenly, spring had finally come for Tsubaki... Too bad..."
"Ah, God!"
"If you want to talk back to me, get a boyfriend first."
Ah, she's been sunk.
"An old maid like me... mutter mutter mutter..."
"Hey, let's leave the old maid alone and have our conversation."
"...Yes."
"Hey, don't be so tense. I'll just ask a few simple things and move on. If there's a question you find hard to answer, you can skip it."
"You can ask anything."
"Hmm, then first... you've been doing blacksmithing outside? How many years?"
"I first started hammering with a smith's hammer... around age 13, so about 14 years. But I remember being in the smithy much earlier than that."
"Your family was a blacksmithing household, I see?"
"Yes, I heard we've been blacksmithing since our ancestors for a long time."
"What do you want to make?"
A sudden serious question? He dives right in... It's not just about the type of weapon I want to make... Then...
"I want to make... fantasies."
"Fantasies?"
"I want to bring back to the world the fantasies that have been forgotten, denied, no longer known."
"I will forge the swords of kings who burned themselves for the world."
"I will smith the spear of a hero who fought knowing that after ten years of war, only miserable defeat awaited."
"I will grind a beautiful blade that can cut anything in this world."
"To give back to people's hands the fantasies they no longer know. That is what I want to do if I join Hephaestus Familia."
I am speaking nothing but the truth. In my previous life, I often made cosplay props, mainly weapons, and carried them. Then I fell into this world. A world where magic and fantasy truly live and breathe. Here, blacksmiths aren't just craftsmen making cold steel. They are artisans who create weapons imbued with magic, special powers, indestructible arms!
When I came to Orario, I thought: I will hammer iron until the fantasies I know are no longer fantasies.
"Please, accept me here.
I have things I must make, things I want to make!"
If you are truly a god, you must be reading my heart, my sincerity.
Now, answer me!
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